Trade Com­mis­sion­er Kar­el De Gucht vis­it­ed Ken­ya, Nam­ib­ia, Bot­swa­na and South Afri­ca last week to dis­cuss ways to strength­en trade and invest­ment rela­tions with the Afri­can regions. The Eco­nom­ic Part­ner­ship Agree­ments (EPAs) that the EU has been nego­ti­at­ing with the East­ern Afri­can Com­mu­ni­ty (EAC) and the South­ern Afri­can Devel­op­ment Com­mu­ni­ty (SADC) aim to con­sol­i­date coun­tries' free access to the EU mar­ket, fos­ter trade-relat­ed coop­er­a­tion and pro­mote invest­ment.

"Sub-Sahar­an Afri­ca is now one of the fast­est grow­ing regions in the world, while the EU, with its 500m con­sum­ers, is the big­gest mar­ket in the world. There are great oppor­tu­ni­ties to be seized on both sides," Com­mis­sion­er said ahead of the tour. "EPAs can pro­vide a frame­work for deep­er trade ties between the EU and Afri­ca, whose geo­graph­i­cal prox­im­i­ty can be turned into a dis­tinct com­mer­cial advan­tage."

The EU is Ken­ya's big­gest trad­ing part­ner, account­ing for around 25% of the coun­try's total exports - over €1bn a year. Bot­swa­na, Nam­ib­ia and South Afri­ca are rich in nat­u­ral resour­ces and export dia­monds, ura­ni­um, plat­i­num and oth­er com­mod­i­ties to the EU.